# favorite booze to clean your pipe bowl



## laloin (Jun 29, 2010)

So guys, am bored. Curious to know what your favorite spirit you use to clean your pipe bowl with after your done smoking to sweeten it up for the next time. Me been using a cheap low grade white rum, but I thinking of going with Everclear or a dark high proof rum 
troy


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## Nachman (Oct 16, 2010)

10 yr old Bourbon. It leaves a nice taste.I don't use it often though.


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

Everclear.


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## 4noggins (May 9, 2009)

I've used "151" Rum for years now with excellent results.

Rich
4noggins.com


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## pffintuff (Apr 20, 2011)

I use clear, white rum on Briar and Meerschaum.


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## jpdunn01 (Jun 4, 2011)

+1 Bourbon


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## TonyBrooklyn (Jan 28, 2010)

Bourbon it is!


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## canadianpiper (Nov 27, 2010)

Vodka, leaves no taste and thats what I am after.


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## JustOneMoreStick (Sep 21, 2009)

Bourbon only as needed in the pipe. It works as a good cleanser when taken internally for you too.


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## Troutman22 (Feb 2, 2011)

Johnnie Walker Blue Label


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## pffintuff (Apr 20, 2011)

Troutman22 said:


> Johnnie Walker Blue Label


At $200 a bottle, that's kind of pricey.:new_all_coholic:


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## funbags (Jan 19, 2011)

I don't think in all my years of pipe smoking I have ever cleaned the inside of my bowls with any alcohol. cleaning the shank and stem yes but never the bowl. Why would you want to do that after ever bowl(don't you want to build cake??) 

And why would you want to sweeten the pipe? just smoke a sweet tobacco would be my choice.I dont smoke many sweet tobaccos so i wouldn't want my pipe giving off any sweet flavorings.

I understand there may be a need to do a deep cleaning way down the line especially if you don't do any basic cleaning along the way but after only a few bowls I don't think cleaning the bowl with alcohol makes sense. But thats just me :neutral:


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## canadianpiper (Nov 27, 2010)

> I don't think in all my years of pipe smoking I have ever cleaned the inside of my bowls with any alcohol. cleaning the shank and stem yes but never the bowl. Why would you want to do that after ever bowl(don't you want to build cake??)


This makes sense, so we need to clarify something, are talking salt treatment cleaning? or post smoke cleaning?.
I would only use Vodka for the salt treatment cleaning.


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## Firedawg (Nov 8, 2010)




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## Pugsley (Jul 12, 2009)

The only time I've ever used alcohol in the bowl was when I bought an estate pipe on Ebay and the seller had been a little too free with pipe sweetener. I reamed the bowl, then cleaned it, the shank and the stem with vodka. Aside from that one time, I use 151 rum in the stem and shank, but never in the bowl.


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## Hambone1 (May 31, 2011)

Jack Daniels but I just purchased Everclear. And I do clean the inside of the bowl as well.


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## CBR (Mar 31, 2010)

I never need to salt treat my bowls but after most smokes I run an absinthe soaked PC through stem and shank. (I would use ever clear but can't get any here, and absinthe is 80% alcohol)


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## Firedawg (Nov 8, 2010)

CBR said:


> I never need to salt treat my bowls but after most smokes I run an absinthe soaked PC through stem and shank. (I would use ever clear but can't get any here, and absinthe is 80% alcohol)


You live in Thailand, You should be able to get stuff that would embalm you. :flame::wacko: 

absinthe use to be illegal here in the states but I heard you can get it now.


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## Troutman22 (Feb 2, 2011)

> At $200 a bottle, that's kind of pricey.:new_all_coholic:


Damn ok I have been outed. I use Everclear. :spank:


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## Hermit (Aug 5, 2008)

Everclear


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## laloin (Jun 29, 2010)

usually after I've smoked a bowl, I take a pipe cleaner, soak the tip with rum. ream out the stem, and shank. 
Then I fold the pipe cleaner in half and just dab the end with rum, and clean out the bowl with rum, it gets the ash and gunk out. 
But seems some don't clean out the bowl with anything, save for a pipe cleaner to clean out the bowl. 
to each his/her own 
troy


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## Sblumberjack (Mar 20, 2011)

Firedawg said:


> You live in Thailand, You should be able to get stuff that would embalm you. :flame::wacko:
> 
> absinthe use to be illegal here in the states but I heard you can get it now.


The only absinthe you can buy in the states is without worm woom, the very thing that makes it absinthe however, you can get the real stuff online. It's only illegal to sell in the states not to own. I have a good website if you would like.


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

funbags said:


> I don't think in all my years of pipe smoking I have ever cleaned the inside of my bowls with any alcohol. cleaning the shank and stem yes but never the bowl.


Good point; yeah, it's just the shank that gets the alcohol, usually with one of those wire shank brushes. I've never had to do the alcohol/salt treatment thing with any of my pipes.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

MarkC said:


> Good point; yeah, it's just the shank that gets the alcohol, usually with one of those wire shank brushes. I've never had to do the alcohol/salt treatment thing with any of my pipes.


I've never cleaned the bowl on any pipe I bought new, just a few estate pipes that I've refurbished. I've only used vodka. (Do different vodkas really taste different? I really don't know, but they all seem the same to me. I only drink sea breezes with it in the summer, though, so vodka is the least of the flavors.)


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## Hambone1 (May 31, 2011)

For those that say they never cleaned their bowls... why not?


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## Stonedog (Mar 9, 2011)

4noggins said:


> I've used "151" Rum for years now with excellent results.
> 
> Rich
> 4noggins.com


I use 151 also, just have to be careful not to get it inside the shank of a MM Cob pipe as it will cause the wood to expand and, in my experience, no amount of drying will return it to normal.


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## Pugsley (Jul 12, 2009)

I've just never seen a need to unless it's badly ghosted by a blend I'll never smoke again, (yes I mean you McClelland Holiday Spirit), I just give the bowl a once over with a doubled up fluffy pipe cleaner and it's ready for the next smoke.


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## CBR (Mar 31, 2010)

Firedawg said:


> You live in Thailand, You should be able to get stuff that would embalm you. :flame::wacko:
> 
> absinthe use to be illegal here in the states but I heard you can get it now.


Haha!! Stopped drinking a few years ago before moving here so couldn't really tell ya, but one thing's for sure, alcohol's really cheap (if domestic).


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Shawn said:


> For those that say they never cleaned their bowls... why not?


I never leave a wet dottle,, dumping nothing but ash 99% of the time. They stay "burned clean" I guess. Only the stems and shanks need a periodic alcohol wash.


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## Jeff10236 (Nov 21, 2010)

I usually just run a pipe cleaner down the stem and shank and in the bowl. When I use alcohol (once in a while- when it starts to taste or smell like it needs it), it is rarely in the bowl. When the bowl gets touched by alcohol it is because my pipe is ghosted by something and I want to freshen it, and then it usually needs the full salt treatment.

When I use alcohol it may be rum, bourbon or another whiskey or vodka (usually depends upon what I reach first). Brand varies based on what's on hand at the time, though I never use Malibu in it since I'm not sure how the flavoring would work with the pipe and I avoid other flavored rums and vodkas as well. I do tend to reach for whatever is the cheapest since I'm not drinking it.


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## Jeff10236 (Nov 21, 2010)

funbags said:


> And why would you want to sweeten the pipe? just smoke a sweet tobacco would be my choice.I dont smoke many sweet tobaccos so i wouldn't want my pipe giving off any sweet flavorings.


Pipe "sweetening" doesn't make it sweet or give a sweet flavor to your tobacco. It is also called "freshening" or just cleaning, and is nothing more than the deep cleaning you do with a commercial pipe sweetener or with alcohol when a pipe starts to taste sour or nasty or if it gets ghosted.


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## Nachman (Oct 16, 2010)

Cleaning a pipe bowl with alcohol is like cleaning a coffee pot with a cleaner. It is a last resort. You only do it when the taste is nasty.


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## phatmax (Mar 18, 2009)

Troutman22 said:


> Johnnie Walker Blue Label


I mix everclear with molten gold for the "Blue Label" effect.

:madgrin:


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

Shawn said:


> For those that say they never cleaned their bowls... why not?


No need.


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## commonsenseman (Apr 18, 2008)

Scotch for me.


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## funbags (Jan 19, 2011)

MarkC said:


> No need.


yep me too


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## Hambone1 (May 31, 2011)

Well.. if I cut out cleaning the bowl.... that bottle of Everclear will last me 10 years! I'm not drinking that crap! Cause it taste like crap... imo


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Shawn said:


> Well.. if I cut out cleaning the bowl.... that bottle of Everclear will last me 10 years! I'm not drinking that crap! Cause it taste like crap... imo


Wrong, wrong, wrong. (Schools aren't what they used to be, are they?) We couldn't have been without Everclear when I was at college, back when they taught the manly art of drinking, not just these wimpy weekend drunks at sporting events they have now. Ever eager to light a candle, rather than curse the darkness, I'll help you out: Buy another four or five bottles, a few gallons of grapefruit juice and a five or six small bags of ice (or a few large ones). Dump it all in the bathtub, turn up the stereo and invite the neighbors in. (If you must clean the bathtub, you must, I suppose. Nobody bothered much with niceties like that back when I attended UVa.)


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

Shawn said:


> Well.. if I cut out cleaning the bowl.... that bottle of Everclear will last me 10 years! I'm not drinking that crap! Cause it taste like crap... imo


I bought mine two years ago; I don't see needing another bottle in this lifetime.


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## Hambone1 (May 31, 2011)

freestoke said:


> Wrong, wrong, wrong. (Schools aren't what they used to be, are they?) We couldn't have been without Everclear when I was at college, back when they taught the manly art of drinking, not just these wimpy weekend drunks at sporting events they have now. Ever eager to light a candle, rather than curse the darkness, I'll help you out: Buy another four or five bottles, a few gallons of grapefruit juice and a five or six small bags of ice (or a few large ones). Dump it all in the bathtub, turn up the stereo and invite the neighbors in. (If you must clean the bathtub, you must, I suppose. Nobody bothered much with niceties like that back when I attended UVa.)


I laughed and then I threw up! LOL


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## DSturg369 (Apr 6, 2008)

Bacardi 151 or Wild Turkey 101.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Shawn said:


> I laughed and then I threw up! LOL


Sounds like a good time! Grain and grapefruit will do that to you. Hopefully the neighbors didn't trash your house too bad.


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

Wasn't much of a party if they didn't.


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## Diodon nepheligina (Nov 5, 2009)

freestoke said:


> Wrong, wrong, wrong. (Schools aren't what they used to be, are they?) We couldn't have been without Everclear when I was at college, back when they taught the manly art of drinking, not just these wimpy weekend drunks at sporting events they have now. Ever eager to light a candle, rather than curse the darkness, I'll help you out: Buy another four or five bottles, a few gallons of grapefruit juice and a five or six small bags of ice (or a few large ones). Dump it all in the bathtub, turn up the stereo and invite the neighbors in. (If you must clean the bathtub, you must, I suppose. Nobody bothered much with niceties like that back when I attended UVa.)


Never had it at a real house party in college, but there was hardly a weekend when at least one of the houses on fraternity row didn't have a trash can full of PGA punch and you just had to kick in a few bucks for a red solo cup and dip yourself a big cupfull of morning headache.

I was much wowed by this Devil's liquor and procured myself a bottle, 'till I realized it was the same stuff as the laboratory grade ethanol I used routinely for academic purposes. After discovering this, the meaning of "academic purposes" may have been stretched a bit...

For pipe cleaning, I use good 'ole Jim Beam.


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## Troutman22 (Feb 2, 2011)

> I mix everclear with molten gold for the "Blue Label" effect.


HAHAHA

:rofl:


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## gentimmy (Nov 1, 2010)

rubbing alcohol.

I only drink it when i'm desperate:laugh:


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## otto (Dec 1, 2007)

When the humidity is high the inside of the bowl gets gooey and won't smoke right. During the summer I use Everclear to get the goo out as often as needed, could be after a week or a month. I tried 151 Rum but didn't like the taste.


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## Eirik (May 7, 2010)

CBR said:


> I never need to salt treat my bowls but after most smokes I run an absinthe soaked PC through stem and shank. (I would use ever clear but can't get any here, and absinthe is 80% alcohol)


I thought real absinth contained a lot of sugar and herbs, just like the 55% stuff I'we tried.

I use isopropanol for alcohol and salt treatment and rum when I feel the pipe need's it.


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